by H.L. Nguyen
Chapter 6
Traveler’s New Friend
As the sun rose, shedding light on the residents of Lake View Lane, the morning had came and gave them a fresh start on a brand new day. The street was bristling with activities. Garage doors would open commencing breadwinners to another eventful day at work. Some retired seniors would breathe in the morning air as they power walked along the side of the street, waving their hands to anybody they recognized. Homemakers would stare and watch the beautiful morning horizon as they gathered their newspaper. Children tentatively walked to the street corner waiting for their daily ride to summer school. However, there was no rest for the Sands’ family. They would begin the day as they did for the past few weeks, remodeling Grandpa Sands’ home. What was once thought to be an abandoned haunted house, with dedication and hard work, it turned into a house that could be on the magazine cover of Dream Homes with the subtitle “Homes that people don’t know about, but wished they won the lottery to buy.” Dog walkers, joggers, and bystanders would come by from their daily grind, stop for a moment, smelling the proverbial rose, to take notice of the transformation that took place; they could not help to be a little envious.
Grandpa’s house seemed to be floating on a cloud with the new coat of white paint. The newly redesigned flower garden gave the house some color instead of its boring deprived look.
Major Sands replaced most of the rotten wood and the shingles on the roof, strengthening its foundation. It was a good thing too, because last week, it rain. If he did not replace the shingles, they would be installing a new swimming pool in the living room.
The hard work paid off, resulting in a beautiful house. However, after spending many painstaking hours fixing the house, they did not feel right to sell the house immediately. They wanted to enjoy their work. Therefore, they all voted and agreed to spend the rest of the summer vacation in Lake Arrowhead.
Even though the house has been through a lot, their work was still not finished. The last thing that they needed to do was to clean the attic and the landscaping. Major Sands handed out the last of the responsibilities for the final changes. Major Sands and Jake worked on the landscaping in the backyard. While Traveler, took take care of the front lawn and the attic. Mrs. Sands had the responsibilities of the backyard gardening and the decoration inside.
The neighbors around Traveler heard the whirling of the motor, smells of the fresh-cut grass, and saw the heavy panting, but still did not do anything to help with Traveler’s efforts. He had an ongoing struggle with nature’s carpet. Grandpa’s lawn was still as high as Traveler’s knees, which made it difficult to move across. Combined with an ineffective mower and Traveler’s rubber band arms, the tall grass did not feel like cooperating with him. This made him wonder how barbers felt when they had to cut children hair.
With each thrust of the subpar lawn mower, it felt like rolling a rock uphill. He was determined to please his dad by finishing his tasks, but he did not know it would take an hour to shear half of the lawn. In a family that was full of athletic men, he wished that he had a sliver of their strength.
As he worked for hours mowing the front lawn, putting the final changes into a long day, he noticed something in the corner of his eye. Somebody was sitting on the rocking chair on the neighbor’s front porch. Traveler has been there for weeks fixing the house and had never seen this person before. Upon closer inspection, it was a young girl. The rocking lured Traveler even closer. However, the rocking was not the reason he got closer. He saw her turn the page of her book and smiled. The movement looked so graceful. He could tell that she was enjoying her book. He could not help but notice her light blonde hair swayed back and forth like a pendulum on a grandfather clock, luring him further than before. She had this glowing aura around her. It was as if the sunlight highlighted her body, making sure it stood out to everyone. He took a couple more steps with the lawn mower. He had never seen anyone like her and thought the most beautiful girl must have dropped from the skies. His hands slipped off the handle, leaving the mower to still running in place. With his eyes on the girl, he walked towards the hedges dividing the property line.
As Traveler got closer, the girl noticed something different and looked around. He ducked below the hedge line thinking that he was out of the view. However, his legs were very visible to her. She caught the sight of his legs and just smiled; then she went back to reading her book. Traveler decided to peek just above the hedge line to see if she was still watching. He caught a glance at the cover of the book; it was a “Tales of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens.
“Oh, he’s my favorite author,” Traveler whispered to himself.
Traveler continued to stare. He could not take his eyes off her; she was just so beautiful. He did not want to seem like a stalker, but the longer he stared the more he realized he was beginning to be a stalker.
Jake and Major Sands came to the side of the house and dropped off some branches they had just trimmed. They noticed the lawn mower engine was still rumbling with nobody pushing it.
“Do you know where your brother is?” Major Sands said.
Jake looked at his father thinking that was a stupid question to ask him. “No Pops, I was with you the entire time.”
They went to investigate. When they reached the lawn mower, they looked around for Traveler and noticed him staring at the girl on the porch.
“Hey Pops, look over there.”
“ I think he has a crush on that girl. I know that look. I had the same one for your mother.” Major Sands said while turning off the lawn mower.
“I don’t want to hear about your love life with mom. Geezz, it just doesn’t sound right. Yuck.” Jake left with a disgusted look on his face, while his dad stood and watched.
“My son’s first crush, my they grow up so quick.” And as he said that, a brown object came whizzing by his ear. The whistling football headed right for Traveler hitting him squarely on the shoulder, knocking him down. The football managed to bounce over the hedge after its surprise attack. Traveler’s face turned red immediately. He could not remember a time when he was this embarrassed. He got up and ran into the house.
Jake hit the ground laughing hysterically. Major Sands furiously walked over to Jake. “Why did you do that!?”
Jake, still on the ground laughing, did not know what to say. He shrugged his shoulder.
“I don’t know. I saw the football and decided to throw it. Did you see that throw? It was right on the money. Bullseye!” Jake said.
Jake turned his hand into a gun and pointed right at the spot where he had hit Traveler. Major Sands’ furious mood did not change.
“This is unacceptable. I’ll deal with you later,” Major Sands said pointing to Jake as he walked towards the house.
“Come on Pops.” Jake stopped laughing, “It was just a joke.”
Major Sands opened the door finding Traveler on the couch with tears running down his face.
“You’re okay kiddo,” Major Sands asked.
“Yes sir.” Traveler said while fighting back his tears.
“Look kiddo, I’m going to punish him for embarrassing you like that.”
“No, it’s fine. He’s just going to hit me in the arm for getting him in trouble.”
“I know he torments you, but my older brother did the same thing to me. So I got stronger and that made him stop.”
“I’m not like you. I’ve tried.”
“I am sorry; I don’t know what to say. I know you are too young to realize it, but adversity is all part of life. It’s how you deal with it that makes you who you are.” There was a slight pause. “Look, between you and me, I’ll make him removed that stump in the backyard by himself. You know how he hates hard labor.”
“Okay,” Traveler said in a depressing voice.
That did not make him happy. However, Traveler felt an unusual presence in the room. He looked over in the mirror and saw a reflection of the beautiful girl in a light blue sundress standing i
n the doorway. He could see her pleasant blue eyes staring right at him. It turned out the football incident was a blessing in disguise. He quickly cleared his throat and repeatedly wiped the tears from his eyes. Major Sands got up and introduced himself.
“Hello, my name is Eric Sands. How can I help you?”
“Hello Mr. Sands. My name is River Robins. I think your son dropped this football on our front lawn.” She showed the football to him.
“Thanks for bringing it over. It belongs to my son right over there.”
When Major Sands pointed over towards Traveler’s direction, he jumped to his feet and straightened up. They both walked over to him.
“Hey son, this is River, I think she wanted to give you something. I’ll leave you two alone; I have to get a stump out of the ground.”
As Major Sands walked away, Traveler gave him a worried look but Major Sands ignored his son’s silent cries for help and walked off. The awkward silence made the situation far worst then he thought. Traveler wished he had tagged along on one of Jake’s fishing trips (at the mall) and maybe he could have picked up some social tips. But, he was never invited and now River stood in the living room staring at Traveler, waiting for him to say something. When Traveler slowly looked up and caught eyes with River, he swiftly shot them back down and blushed. He has never started a conversation with a girl; heck, he had never even spoken to one, but standing before him was this beautiful girl and he has no idea what to say.
“Hi,” River said breaking the ice.
“Um...Hi” he said still looking down at his feet.
“Is this your football?”
“Ahh...noooo.”
“No, umm... okay, I am sorry, I’ll leave.”
She turned to leave.
“UMM...WAIT!”
Traveler did not realize he was shouting. River jumped a little and turned back around.
“It’s my brother’s football. I can give it to him.” Traveler said extending his arms, but staring at his shoes. She handed him the football and waited for Traveler to say something. When he did not say anything, she shrugged her shoulders and turned to walk away.
“Okay, bye.”
Traveler froze; he did not know what to say next. He did not want her to leave, but he could not think of anything to say. He needed to act quickly.
Say something you fool. He knew that saying anything would be better than saying nothing.
“I like your hair!”
Traveler covered his mouth in disbelief. River turned around and gave him a half smile.
“Umm...thank you?”
She made a quick 180 degree turn and walked a little faster towards the door. Traveler could not believe he just said that. He realized the last thing on her mind could be how weird he was. Just as she walked out of the door, he quickly blurted out.
“Charles Dickens is my favorite author!”
She stopped in her tracks and twirled around. She felt comfortable to enter the house again, but just as she walked into the house, she heard a familiar voice bellowed over the distance.
“River! It’s time for lunch!”
“I am sorry, I have to go. Bye.” She waved and ran back to her place.
“Bye,” He said to himself while waving at the empty spot at the doorway. They exchanged greeting, they shared a moment, and she left as quickly as she came. He had the football, which felt awkward in his inexperienced hands. He wanted it out of his sight; however, the throw barely reached half the distance to the couch. With River gone, he knew he had missed his chance. Feeling horrible, he sat back down on the couch.
“Stupid Traveler, I like your hair. What were you thinking?” He realized that beating himself up would not changed the outcome. Then, his eyes lit up.
“Oh man, she doesn’t even know my name.”
Feeling defeated, Traveler walked towards the backyard door and saw Jake with his shirt drenched with sweat. In the sweltering heat, Jake worked tirelessly on the stump. He did his best swinging a big heavy ax, chopping up the stump into little pieces. The misery on his face said it all. Jake hardly got punished for teasing Traveler because he hid his actions well. So watching Jake’s punishment brought some happiness back. He saw his father in the corner of his eye watering the plants that Mrs. Sands grew. He rushed over.
“Dad, why did you leave me alone? I did horrible in there.”
“What happened?”
Traveler explained his recent experience with River.
“Look kiddo, give it some time and things will work out. Just don’t think about it anymore.” Major Sands went back to watering the plants.
Thanks dad. He thought sarcastically.